Activity Creation and Management

Overview

Create and publish an array of community activities including text, rich media, and surveys.

Go to the Activities tab on the left-hand sidebar. Click the + Create New activity button in the upper left corner to get started.

NOTE: You can create a Research Engine Project from this page by clicking on the purple button to the right. You are taken right to the Project Type screen to select a project type.

Step 1: Activity Details

• Assign a team to the activity—Your activity is available to All Moderators of the community by default. If you want to make a change, select another team in the dropdown menu.
  

  Note: Once you assign a team to an activity, you won’t be able to change it.

• Title [required]—This is where you input the member-facing title of the activity. Give your activity card a title.
• Activity Card Description [required]—The description is for moderator purposes only.

Manage Section

• Add to Topic [optional]—You may further assign the activity to a searchable Topic.
• Add to Category [required]—Assign your activity to a searchable Category.
• Add to Objective [required]—Select the Objective which most closely fits with the goal of the research project. Select Other if one does not fit. If the project is not for research, select Community Admin.
• Author—Choose the moderator who will write the content.

Options Section

Activity Card Options

The activity card displays in all list views in the community, on the homepage, and inside of topics. The options selected here are used in the carousel view featured on the home page if the activity is featured.

• Activity Card Image—Add an image and text for the activity card. The activity card is how the activity is displayed when listed on the homepage or when browsing topics and categories.
  
  The optimal activity card image size is 1200x675, but after you upload an image you can crop it.
  
  This is an example of an activity card on the homepage:
  
• Featured Image—An image that displays across the top of the member-facing side of the community. Featured activities are displayed on the homepage carousel in large format. High-quality images work best. We recommend images that are at least 2500 pixels wide for best results, though we support all jpg and png images, large and small.
  
  

  This is what a featured image looks like on the home page:
  

• Featured Button Call to Action—Text that displays on a button when an activity is added to the homepage carousel. If you leave this blank, the button will say MORE? but you can customize the text if you prefer.

Customize Card Background & Text Colors

• The activity card background color and text color will only be used if no image is uploaded with the card. The colors will also be used in the feature carousel if this activity is featured. When used in the featured carousel, the featured image will fade on the far right to the background color below to create a seamless element that runs across the full width of the browser.
  
• Provide a short Activity Card Description of up to 260 characters, which will display below the image in the activity card.

After you are satisfied with the page layout, click Save & Continue to move along. Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Step 2: Attach Surveys or Polls

Attach surveys or polls to activities in order to create a login survey or a content-level survey.

1. Select Survey: In this step, you can attach one or more surveys to your activity. You can select from...
   • No Survey
   • Survey: The survey needs to have already been created in Qualtrics or Alchemer and imported into the Surveys section before you can attach it.
   • Quick Poll: The poll questions should have been created in the community Polls section (Community > Surveys > Polls).
2. Click the Add button.
3. Additional Survey Options: Once the survey is added, you can...
   • Allow members to retake the survey after submitting it.
   • One of the following: 
     • Make the survey optional.
     • Force the member to take the survey before continuing to the activity landing page.
       • Add a Survey Disqualification Message for those who do not qualify for the survey (up to 175 characters).
     • Turn the survey into a login poll. You can use the arrows to reorder the polls as well.
   • Disable Activity Landing (optional): If you want to disable the activity landing page completely, select the checkbox. In this case, when a member clicks on the content widget, they will be presented with the poll and when finished, they will be returned to the homepage.
     
     

     Do not disable the activity landing page if you set the survey as optional!

4. After you are satisfied with the page layout, click Save & Continue to move along. Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Step 3: Landing Page

The landing page is made of individual blocks: text, file, survey, and custom code (called overlay embed). Blocks can be edited, sorted, and removed. Community managers have wide latitude to create content for their communities with the tools available in Fuel Cycle. Community managers can combine multiple building blocks to create community activities.

Fuel Cycle's content builder supports versioning, which means community managers can create and control multiple versions of community posts.

Start by selecting a block type, customizing it, and then adding it to the landing page. Block types include:

• Text blocks allow you to include prompts, instructions, and other messaging.
• File blocks are used for including images, videos, or other file types from the Asset Library or your computer. You will also have the option to insert video/audio files, gifs, and clickable prototypes from external websites via their distribution links.
• Survey blocks allow you to insert a button that links to a survey on the activity detail page.
  You can also add a survey from the "Attach Surveys" tab, which is the recommended process to include surveys in an activity.
• Fuel Cycle Exchange (FCX) Study blocks allow you to embed an enabled FCX partner project onto the page.
• Overlay Embed blocks can be used when you need to display something that requires custom HTML code. This block will display as a button on the page, that, when clicked, will display the custom HTML in an overlay over the activity page.
• Fuel Cycle Live (FC Live) blocks allow you to insert FC Live sessions where members can then reserve a time and participate in the session.
• Events blocks allow you to embed events onto the page.

Description Block—Text

• Block Title: This is for internal use only and may be seen by other community managers.
• Text:  Fuel Cycle uses a WYSIWYG editor. How you format the text here is how it will appear in the published post. Note that there is a 15,000-character limit, although you can include multiple text boxes.

Description Block—File

1. Add files to posts from three different sources:
   • Embed: add a link to content from an external source, such as YouTube, Hulu, Gfycat, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Marvel, and many other sources.
     

     This field is looking for the site link, not the embed code from the site.

   • Asset library: the asset library contains your pre-existing file uploads.
   • Upload: you may upload a file for this content. File types may include video, images, audio or documents. The file may be copied to the asset library for future use. Large files or slow internet connections may require a few minutes for the file to encode.
     

     NOTE: The maximum file size for images is as follows:

     • File size: 512MB
     • File width: 2520 pixels
     • File height: 5040 pixels
       
       If you upload a file larger than the above specs, the file will be compressed down, which will result in the quality degrading. It is recommended to keep the source file within the specs above for the highest-quality image display in the activity.

2. Add a Block Title that is for internal use only and may be seen by other community managers.
3. Add a caption (optional) that will be displayed below the image.
   
4. Assign a link URL (optional) that redirects the community member if clicked.
   • If this file is an image that will be re-used, select "Copy to asset library"

Description Block—Survey

1. Select your survey by typing the name of the survey into the search box and then selecting the survey you’d like to include in the content.
2. Surveys are accessed by members by clicking on a button. Create a label for the button; we suggest a short, friendly call to action.
3. You may choose to customize the text color and button color (optional). Colors are customized with HTML hex codes, which can be found here.
4. Add a message to be displayed after community members finish the survey.

Description Block—FCX Study

You must have the FCX study created in the partner platform before it's available in Fuel Cycle to add to a Fuel Cycle activity.  Learn more about Fuel Cycle Exchange.

1. Select your study by typing the name of the study into the search box and then selecting the study you’d like to include in the content.
2. Studies are accessed by members by clicking on a button. Create a label for the button; we suggest a short, friendly call to action.
3. You may choose to customize the text color and button color (optional). Colors are customized with HTML hex codes, which can be found here.
4. Add a message to be displayed after community members finish the survey.

Description Block—FC Live

1. Select your interview by typing the name of the interview into the search box.
2. Select the interview you’d like to include in the content.
3. Click Add.
4. Add a Block Title for internal reference purposes.
5. Click Save to retain or Cancel to exit without making changes.

Description Block—Overlay Embed

1. Select Overlay Embed.
2. Click Add.
3. Add a Block Title. This is for internal use only and may be seen by other community managers.
4. Use the WSIWYG editor to add your text. Note that there is a 15,000-character limit.
5. You may choose to embed external content using the HTML editor. Note that if you choose to embed content using an iframe, you may “break” the responsiveness of the community on mobile devices.
6. Overlays are accessed by members by clicking on a button. Create a label for the button; we suggest a short, friendly call to action.
7. You may choose to customize the text color and button color (optional). Colors are customized with HTML hex codes, which can be found here.

Description Block—Events

1. Select your event by typing the name of the interview into the search box.
2. Select the interview you’d like to include in the content.
3. Click Add.
4. Add a Block Title for internal reference purposes.
5. Click Save to retain or Cancel to exit without making changes.

Reordering Content Blocks

You may change the order in which content appears by selecting the ordering button and then dragging content up or down.

Versions

This is useful for tracking changes as content is built and leaving notes for other community managers or supervisors to review progress on community posts. In addition, you can determine which version of content should be published in the community.

View all available versions of the activity here. At any time, you can revert back to a previous version or publish a new version by clicking on the version name and then selecting the option to "Show in Community."

1. To save a version, type a description of the version into the Version Description.
2. Show in community: check this box if this post version is the post you plan to publish in the community. You can always choose to use this version later.  This box is checked by default whenever you update an activity.
3. Select Save.

Version History

Version History is contained at the top of the Description page. The version highlighted in yellow shows the version you are editing. Content highlighted in blue shows which post version is set to be highlighted in the community.

You may toggle between the version history to work on different versions of the content.

If you want to save the version you are working on and remain on this page to continue editing, click the Save button. Click Save & Continue to move along. Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Commenting and Voting

Click Enable comments to allow member commenting. You may also check any of the following (although some comment settings do not apply when selected together):

• • Approval Required—Require member comment approval.
  • Uninfluenced Comments—Members will not be able to see any previously submitted comments until they submit their own comments.
  • Force Private Response—Moderators can force private threads only with the moderator within the activity.
    

    This only applies to comments and attachments posted in comments. This does not apply to album uploads.

    Think of this as a Diary Study capability inside of a Discussion (you can still accomplish the same action within a Diary). Uninfluenced Comments do not need to be enabled and do not apply if this setting is selected. This is distinct from members selecting for themselves to leave a private response in the Discussion.
• Voting—Enable the ability for members to vote with a "Like".
  

Step 4: Media

Use Attach Media to create a Gallery view of rich media such as photos, videos, and audio files. Media uploads will appear in a gallery below the activity description.

Attach Media to Activity

Attach media to the activity by embedding files or uploading them. All major providers are supported for embeds and all major file type uploads are also accepted. Click the appropriate button to embed or upload a file.

Attach Media Embed

1. Embed media by clicking Attach Media Embed.
2. Enter the embed code into the field
3. Click Submit.
4. Enter a title.
5. The description is optional. 

embed.ly has a list of providers.

Attach Media Files

1. Upload a file or files from your computer by clicking Attach Media Files.
2. Once selected, uploads require a title while a description is optional.
3. You can add more files and reorder the files by using the up and down arrows.

Files will not be uploaded until you click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Allow File Uploads 

Allow clients and members to upload files to the activity or comments as well as allow downloads. Files added here will appear below the activity description.

Set voting on file attachments using likes or disable voting completely.

After you are satisfied with the page layout, click Save & Continue to move along. Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Video Analysis (optional step)

Enable video analysis with VoxPopMe.

Step 5: Actions & Points

If you have gamification enabled, the Actions & Points section will display as an additional step when you are creating activities in Fuel Cycle.

You can assign point awards for different actions that a member can take on an activity:

• Maximum points members can earn from actions taken on this content—Sets a ceiling on the maximum number of points a member can earn. Without a ceiling, members will earn points for every action they take. For example, if they comment five times and ten points are awarded for each comment, they'll earn 50 points. However, if a ceiling of 15 was created, a member could only earn 15 points.

  It's not enough to only select this option. One of the below options should also be selected.

• For taking a quick poll attached to this content—Awards points for completed quick polls.
• For taking a survey attached to this content—Awards points for completed surveys.
• For commenting on content or someone's content—Any 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level comment.
• For uploading files—Includes any file type, including photos and videos
• For comments on an uploaded file—Please note that this only applies to files uploaded to the gallery, not comments.
• For someone's reply to his/her comment—Encourages members to create thought-provoking content that others will respond to.
• For someone's comment on his/her upload—Also encourages members to upload thought-provoking content. Note that this only applies to files uploaded to a gallery, not comments.
• For participating in an FC Live session—points earned for participating in an FC Live session
• For successfully completing a Live Event session attached to this activity—Encourages members to participate in Live Events until the end.
• For partially completing a Live Event session attached to this activity—Encourages members to join Live Events.
• For successfully completing an FCX study attached to this activity—Encourages members to complete FCX studies, especially external studies.
• For partially completing an FCX study attached to this activity—Encourages members to participate in FCX studies.

After you are satisfied with the page layout, click Save & Continue to move along. Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Geolocation (optional step)

Step 6: Invite Members

Indicate which members can view this activity. When All is selected, all members will be able to view the activity. To invite specific groups or individuals, choose Select Invitees.

In the Groups tab, you’ll see all active groups. Selecting a group will add it to the invited list on the right. To invite individual users, select the Members tab and you can either select members one-by-one, or click Add Manually to paste a list of comma-separated usernames to add at once.

After you are satisfied with the page layout, click Save & Continue to move along. Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Step 7: Schedule Activity

In this final step, you can schedule the activity to publish immediately or at a future time and date. In addition, you can indicate an end date for when the activity should be closed out.

Click Save & Exit if you are done making changes. Click Cancel if you wish to exit and not save any changes.

Click Preview to see what the new activity looks like. From here, you can return to edit any step or publish. When you click Publish, the activity will be visible to the invited members on the scheduled date and time.